Category Archives: Monday Brews
Monday Brews: Thanksgiving Edition
Hello my faithful internet friends. Today is Tuesday but I’m presenting my Monday Brews article anyway. The Monday after Thanksgiving is a family day for us to go cut down a Christmas tree and decorate our house. Thanks for understanding.
While my Thanksgiving week didn’t come close to my BGG.con week in terms of games played, it was surprisingly good. Here’s a recap of the Boards and Barley that I enjoyed last week:
The Barley:
Fleming’s Scotch Ale: This is my newest homebrew and the first few bottles I’ve had have been quite delicious. It is named after Sir Alexander Fleming, discover of penicillin among other accomplishments. All of my 2013 brews have been named after renaissance men (though Fleming isn’t technically a renaissance man, he was the closest person Scotland has to one). In 2014 all my brews will have a board game related name!
The Boards:
Glass Road: While I haven’t yet figured this game out, I know that I enjoy it. It is fun to work with the dials and try to plan my turns the right way so that I can be able to do stuff on my turn. I like the interaction with trying to choose the right cards. And overall I’m satisfied with the game. I may, however, add a house rule that we add a round to the game. Most of the times I’ve played it has felt like I was barely able to get an engine going and then the game was over.
Carcassonne: I enjoyed this classic with my in-laws family. We played with the Inns & Cathedrals expansion and the Traders and Builders expansion. I got beat handily, which was annoying since one player kept targeting my areas and trying to either share points or win the majority.
Stone Age x2: I introduced this game to my in-laws foreign exchange student from Denmark. He really got it right away and was glad we could play it again before the weekend was over. I really enjoy this worker placement game because it is so accessible to new players. I’ve pondered getting the Style Is The Goal expansion so it can play with 5. Do any of you have any thoughts about that expansion? Is it lame?
Good fun for 4 year olds!
Littlest Pet Shop x2: My 4yo daughter enjoyed playing this game while we were at the in-laws. She kept making up rules to her advantage. I’ll have to teach her about following the rules. But it was a lot of fun to watch her excitement when she earned one of the little animal figures.
Kingdom Builder x2: I know this is a controversial title, but I really enjoy the game. There’s a good amount of strategy if you get the right cards. Even when you get bad cards, the game doesn’t last too long. We played with the Crossroads expansion.
Undermining: This is another game I like to put in front of new gamers. It’s fun to imagine actually digging down for the precious materials and then using them to upgrade your Universal Mining Vehicle. This game, though, is one where I usually use a house rule or two. One of them is to adjust the scoring for the contracts and another is to have the endgame trigger be the emptying of two contract piles. Fun game though!
Compounded x2: Speaking of fun games, the in-laws really seemed to like this game. I got demolished both times we played. I just kept drawing hydrogen and carbon and I needed neither of them! Oh well. It’s a really fun game and I’m looking forward to the next time I get to play!
So overall it was a pretty good gaming week!
Designer’s Corner:
I actually made some game design progress this past week as well. While I was at the in-laws I sat down for a while and worked on Brooklyn Bridge. I like the overall concept that I’ve put in the game, but some of the details about how it works are a little too thematic. So I’ve decided to step away a little from the theme and make the game more fun, which is always a good thing. I have a little up-front work to do to get the game playable, but I’m hoping that I can do some great first playtests around mid-January.
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So those are the Boards and Barley that I enjoyed and the design progress that I made in the last week. What did you enjoy?
Monday Brews: BGG.con Recap
It’s Monday and there are two inches of fresh snow on the ground in Madison this morning. But I am back from BGG.con and am happy to provide a special recap version of The Monday Brews for you! My BGG.con experience was awesome, so let’s not delay in the telling of tales and sharing of stories in the Monday Brews.
The Barley:
While I was at BGG.con I only had a few brews. The hotel bar had a very small selection so I basically skipped the Barley portion of the week. I did sneak in a few brews and here they are…
Shiner Bock: This seemed to be the staple both at the bar and available in the coffee shop. So I had a couple of these. Unfortunately the $7 per bottle price tag was a little steep for me so I didn’t have more. This isn’t what I would consider a great beer, but it’s from Texas, so that counts for something, I think.
Sierra Nevada IPA: This was the on tap beer for the “Cash & Carry” food section offered at the convention hall. My awesome publisher was kind enough to purchase one for me while I was demoing Scoville. I’m not an IPA guy, but it hit the spot.
Some Texas IPA: While having an entertaining evening at the hotel bar before heading to a party I was able to enjoy some other Texas IPA. I have no idea what brand it was and neither did the waitress. Oh well.
The Boards:
In a typical week I play between 2-7 games. In last week’s BGG.con week I played or taught 36 games! I’ll be recapping each BGG.con day with the games I played.
Wednesday…
On my flights I got in my first two games of the week. Those were Ascension and Le Havre. I can’t sleep on planes so having these games helped pass the time. I arrived in Dallas around 2:15 and headed straight to the convention. Since I was there to demo Scoville I immediately went to the demo area and set it up. Table D6 in Demo Land would be my home base for the next four days.
Despite prototype art people were still interested in playing!
Scoville Demo x4: Wednesday afternoon/evening I was able to run four demos of Scoville. I had already visited the exhibit hall and snagged one of the last five copies of Glass Road. I’m glad I didn’t wait to get one. My big mistake while running demos was not documenting who played them. Gil Hova has a great recap article on BGG where he links to all the players who he played with and I wish I could have done the same. At least I learned something. After four demos it seemed people were liking the game. I was pleased with that.
Glass Road: After leaving the demo hall I found the Tasty Minstrel guys in the Jonsson room and we sat down to punch and play my copy of Glass Road. Seth had already played so he was able to teach us. I was already a little brain burned from the 4 Scoville demos so I didn’t play a very good game, but I’m glad to have bought a copy since I think it is fun and interesting and short enough to make regular visits to my gaming table.
Bang! The Dice Game: I like Bang and think it’s a fun game, but with player elimination I think it’s a little too long. Enter the dice version. I played this with Chris Kirkman of Dice Hate Me, Darrell Louder of Compounded and UnPub fame, Michael Mindes of Tasty Minstrel, and Scott King of game photography awesomeness. I’m not typically much of a social gamer and my face usually gives everything away. But since this is a dice version I was able to help my team lose quickly instead of dragging things out. I’m tempted to pick this up.
One Night Ultimate Werewolf: I had never played Werewolf before. In fact I feel really bad that I always thought people looked really goofy when playing. I blame that on ignorance. The new One Night Ultimate Werewolf not only has really nice looking artwork, but it’s a lot of fun. With the same group as Bang The Dice Game we had one particularly funny moment when the reader, who shall remain nameless, was reading the part about the “Troublemaker” and instead of reading down into the rulebook like for the previous players he lifted his head while reading the troublemaker portion and gave himself away. It was really hilarious when we all lifted our heads and started laughing.
Thursday…
I woke up early to head to the coffee shop and grab a strong caffeinated beverage and worked on some game design until the exhibit hall opened at 10. After a quick walk through the hall including purchasing the new Ticket to Ride: Nederland, I was back in Demo Land for more Scoville. Here’s what the gaming hall looked like:
Pure gaming Awesomeness! (Apparently also pure gaming blurriness)
I was able to run 4 more Scoville demos before I realized that I was hungry. After snagging some food I joined up with the awesome Benny Sperling and his wife Jax for some non-Scoville gaming. It was a nice break.
Trains: I’ve played Trains a few times so far and I think I enjoy it. I like that it has similarities to Dominion, which makes it accessible. But I dislike that it is so similar to Dominion. While having the board gives an extra dimension, there are often turns where you can’t do anything. And that’s not due to having a lot of waste in my hand because I ended with only 4 waste cards. I’m hoping that upcoming expansions pull this game further from Dominion.
Mai-Star: This is a game about geisha and guests by the designer of Love Letter. On your turn you can either place an advertiser or a guest. Advertisers let you entertain better guests. Guests let you have special abilities when played. This is a light and interesting game that’s played over three rounds. I’d play it again but it’s not something I would buy.
Scoville x3: After Mai-Star I hustled back to the demo table where people were waiting. I not only taught them the game, but also two other groups after them. Overall I demoed Scoville 7 times on Thursday.
New Bedford: I was fortunate to know someone who had brought a print and play version of New Bedford by Nathaniel Levan and Oak Leaf Games. It is a game about a whaling town, which is a cool theme. Your goal is to send out boats to capture whales. But the coolest part about the game is how the town itself actually gets built. Players have worker placement spots where they can gain resources or money, or build buildings. Buildings can then be used as worker placement locations. Head to the Oak Leaf Games website to learn more. My first impression was that it was a very entertaining game and I am looking forward to playing it again!
Embarrassing Moment Nominee: In case you are unaware there is a designer with the name Alan R. Moon who designed a little game called Ticket to Ride. You might have heard of that game. It’s the one in Target with the sticker that reads “Over 2 Million Copies Sold.” Yeah, the guy is sort of a celebrity in the industry. Well, he happened to be standing near my demo table and I had to walk over and introduce myself. That was the cool part. The embarrassing part was that I immediately mentioned how I had an awesome idea for the contest that they ran last year and I started to go on and on about my idea a new Ticket to Ride. Then in my head I froze and realized that the poor guy probably gets bombarded by hundreds of ideas all the time and he probably doesn’t want to hear one from some dude that he just met. I basically told myself to shut up, thanked him, and walked away feeling like an idiot.
Friday…
Gift shop items that reassured me I was demoing Scoville in the right state!
Friday was a down day for Scoville with only 5 demos, but when I wasn’t demoing I was connecting with people in the UnPub Proto Alley or schmoozin with publishers.
Scoville x5: Friday’s Scoville demos were the first to have a repeat player. I thought that was pretty cool.
Compounded (With possible expansion): I love Compounded and I had the opportunity to play it with the publisher and a few others in the UnPub area. The designer was demoing it with a possible expansion that I thought made the game more interesting. I won’t mention any details about the expansion because there’s nothing official, but they wouldn’t go wrong by adding it to the game!
Double Impact: This was a prototype that I would PNP immediately if I could get my hands on the files. There was just something about the game utilizing worker placement and very interesting decisions that I found fascinating. I was also drooling over the brilliant iconography. The designer was at the table and the other player was annoyed with me fawning over the game. While the game needs a little tweaking, it has a very promising future.
Belle of the Ball: I backed this game on Kickstarter nearly on artwork and graphic design alone. I finally got to play it and I am very happy to report that it was also a very good game. The Belle cards add a lot of “take that” type of action to the game, but also allow you to increase the awesomeness of your party. I’m looking forward to this one arriving next year!
Round Trip & Enqueteur by David Short: David is a Tasty Minstrel Games alum with Ground Floor and Skyline having already been published. So it was a pleasure to meet him and play some of his prototypes. Round Trip is about getting yourself to your gate at an airport. It utilizes a mancala mechanic, but does so in a more interesting way because of the interaction between other players and the cards you are trying to score. I was pretty impressed with the state of the game considering it’s only a few months old. Then we played Enqueteur, which is a very nice step up from Love Letter. It plays similar to Love Letter but adds some interesting complications to the game. David is doing some awesome designing right now and I wish him the best!
Pitch Car: After leaving the gaming hall a few of us decided to play a quick lap of Pitch Car which was set up in the open area. The track setup is shown below. It was pretty epic. What wasn’t epic was how I played. Despite that it was a fun way to cap off the night!
We got owned by a first-timer!
Saturday…
I started Saturday early since I wanted to get in as many demos of Scoville as I could. But it would turn out that my gaming day would begin with something called Dart Gun Desperados a.k.a. Rubber Banditos.
How fast an you draw your rubber band six shooter?
Rubber Banditos: This is a crazy cool game by Steve Avery, who co-designed Nothing Personal with Tom Vasel, who you may have heard of. The idea of the game is you are trying to gain money with your people. But you’d better beware or you’ll get shot by an opponent. And the shooting was done with real rubber band shooters. You would actually shoot rubber bands at your opponents figures. While I ended with no money, the gameplay itself is what made the game for me. The best part is the gun fight where you duel with an opponent. Steve was awesome to meet and talk with and I look forward to enjoying a brew or two with him in the future!
Scoville x5: One of the highlights of the convention was that I got to play Scoville with both Seth and Michael from Tasty Minstrel. It was interesting to see the strategy of how they played. And it was also very nice after the closing ceremonies when TMG gave me the okay to wrap up the demos. With 22 demos under my belt I increased my number of plays significantly. And I can honestly say that I did not get sick of the game. Thank you to all who played the game. I am honored and humbled by your kind words.
Going, Going, Gone: Appropriately enough the very last game I played was Going, Going, Gone. This is an action auction game where players try to bid on five different auctions at the same time. We were playing an adult version that featured some of the Shiner Bock that I mentioned above and we were taught by the spunky Betsy Ross. It was sheer fun, unless you kept getting beer spilled on your arm.
Embarrassing Moment Nominee #2: I have an issue with dragging out stories and Saturday night was one of those moments. I was trying to tell the story of how I met a publisher at GenCon 2 years ago and failed to pick up the check and then how I met another publisher 2 years ago and submitted a crappy game, and how ultimately those are the two publishers I am now closest with. It’s actually a really cool story but should only take about 5 minutes to tell instead of fifteen. Afterword someone with clout in the biz said, “That was the longest story ever!,” but with mildly stronger language. I felt bad about wasting their time. If you ever want to hear the story I’ll be happy to practice a short version before telling you the story.
My BGG.con experience wrapped up with the I’m Board With Life crew who were throwing a party in their rooms. We had an exceptional bartender for starters, but I was also able to meet Quinns from Shut Up Sit Down. That was pretty cool, especially since he said Scoville sounded interesting! I also had an inspirational moment about greater stuff in life when chatting with the wife of one of the I’m Board With Life guys. She helped me gain perspective on life in Central America and I am afraid to say that we in the US don’t have the right understanding of Latin American culture. If I took nothing away from BGG.con other than that conversation, then it still would have been worth it. I couldn’t thank her enough for her honesty.
Other Awesomeness:
BGG.con is a fantastic convention. I love that it is singularly focused on board games. I love the intimate feel where it’s like you’re all part of a family. And I love that there are so many amazing people who attend. I met so many of you and I’d love to list you all but I know I would forget some. Needless to say, BGG.con is great for networking and socializing with really awesome people.
I also enjoyed the exhibit hall since it wasn’t like fighting for survival the way the GenCon exhibit hall can feel at times. It’s so casual and you can just chat with people and make lasting connections. I particularly enjoyed my conversation with the awesome couple behind MeepleSource.com. They had a great booth and they offer awesome stuff to spruce up your games.
I specially want to thank Darrell Louder for his time contributions to run the UnPub Proto Alley. While I did not have the chance to participate, I understand what an awesome venue it can be for aspiring game designers. It offered the chance for designers to get and give feedback for prototype game designs. That’s the same way that I first got Scoville to the table in front of other designers. I’m not sure if there is a better way for networking and bettering your designs than things like UnPub. So make sure you thank Darrell when you get a chance. He’s an awesome dude.
My only regret of the convention is that I did not get to play most of the Hot Essen Releases. These included Amerigo, Lewis & Clark, Machi Koro, Concordia, Caverna, Nauticus, Russian Railroads, Nations and Madeira. They were sitting so tantalizingly close to my Scoville demo table.
Thanks to everyone who took the time to play a prototype of Scoville. I am humbled that so many people were willing to sit at a table and play a prototype when all the Hot Essen Releases were just mere feet away. BGG.con was a fantastic experience and I’m very much considering going back next year.
Monday Brews: 11-18-13
It’s a good news – bad news Monday here at Boards and Barley. First, the bad news: the Scoville Kickstarter campaign is being moved to mid-December. We’ll all just have to be patient a little longer. Now the good news: I’ll be at BGG.con demoing Scoville and meeting a lot of you awesome people this week!
That’s right. It’s gonna be a slow week on Boards and Barley because I’ll be down in Dallas enjoying some full on boards and barley with fellow designers and gamers and publishers. It’s gonna be awesome!
Never-the-less, today is Monday so I present to you the Boards and Barley that I enjoyed last week:
The Barley:
Rasputin rounds out the lineup of stouts.
Newton’s Oatmeal Stout: My own oatmeal stout is a decent homebrew. However, it is gonna have some competition soon as I recently bottled my scotch ale, which will be named after Sir Alexander Fleming.
Lost Coast Eight Ball Oatmeal Stout: This is a pretty good oatmeal stout, expecially since it doesn’t have that “homebrew” characteristic that my beer possesses.
Bell’s Special Double Cream Stout: A straggler from the 6-pack I purchased was thoroughly enjoyed. I find this double cream stout to be very drinkable.
North Coast Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout: It was a strange week for me barley-wise. I only had stouts. A few years ago that would never have happened. I do believe my beer palate is maturing! Unforunately I enjoyed this brew after those other stouts and so I only went for half the bottle. But if you want something potent then I would recommend anything that says “Russian Imperial.”
The Boards:
Cable Car: This is one of the best games to get a game night started. The strategy is light. The decisions are few. The screwage is immense. It has everything to get people into the gaming mood. And since it plays quickly, Cable Car makes it to the table relatively frequently. Fun game!
Last Will: I played this at our board game night as well. And I lost badly. I am usually pretty good at this game, but I made a HUGE error on the very first turn and really botched things. Plus, the Old Friend wasn’t available for me as the first player in the first round. That really hindered my game. But despite my pitiful performance this is a game that I love playing. It is a really awesome design.
Compounded: I taught Compounded to four family members over the weekend and the consensus was that they loved it. One of them is a chemist so it was right up her alley. My older brother, who isn’t really a gamer, dominated everyone by getting some compounds completed really early. If you have yet to check out Compounded, maybe it’s time to pick it up!
Kingdom Builder: We played Kingdom Builder with the Crossroads expansion. It is a great expansion and I love the new “objectives” to strive for during the game. This is a really enjoyable game for me as it is light enough to keep my wife interested, yet deep enough to make me care on every turn.
Dungeon Roll: I played this solo and had a decent game… or so I thought. I fought hard to get those 19 points only to learn that that only makes me a Village Hero. I must be doing something wrong since I barely ever score in the 20s. Oh well. Also, if you haven’t seen it, there is a Winter Heroes promo pack on Kickstarter right now for a super low price. But hurry up since there’s less than 24 hours to go!
Designer’s Corner:
As I mentioned last week I’ve been in the designer doldrums lately. This time of year is usually so busy for me that I brain rarely gets a spare moment to work on hobby stuff. However, since I’ll be down at BGG.con this week I’m going to bring my notebook and idea box to see if I can come up with anything for my current games or possibly to come up with a few new games. I’ll keep you posted.
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So those are the Boards and Barley that I enjoyed last week. What did you enjoy? And will I see you at BGG.con?
Monday Brews: 11-11-13
Happy Monday everyone! It’s supposed to be snowing here today. The Green Bay Packers lost yesterday. And I lost my voice over the weekend. So it’s not really a happy Monday. That’s why I bring you the Monday Brews each week here on Boards & Barley. I’m going to skip the Designer’s Corner section of the article today since I did no design work whatsoever last week, what with the Scoville campaign on Kickstarter launching soon.
Never-the-less, here are the Boards and Barley that I enjoyed last week:
The Barley:
Capital Supper Club: I enjoyed this while bowling. It’s a “not bad” beer from a local brewery that is easy to drink and is quite enjoyable.
Spaten Optimator: I also enjoyed this one while bowling. It was on tap but it sort of tasted like it made a stinky and long trip overseas from Germany. I’ve definitely had better Optimator.
Bell’s Two Hearted: This beer, also enjoyed during bowling, is about where I draw my hop line. I am not a fan of overly hoppy beer, but this Pale Ale toes that line nicely.
Bell’s Double Cream Stout: When they say “Double Cream” they mean it! This is a smooth and creamy concoction of deliciousness that was worth purchasing. Very enjoyable.
Tyranena The Devil Made Me Do It: This is a special beer from their Brewers Gone Wild series. It is an imperial Coffee Porter and it is awesome. Though it is an imperial, it doesn’t pack the alcohol punch that many imperials possess. The best part is the smooth coffee nature of the beer. It was an all around enjoyable brew.
Newton’s Oatmeal Stout: I enjoyed another of my own homebrew. Thankfully it doesn’t suck.
Lost Coast Eight Ball Oatmeal Stout: Here’s another oatmeal stout that I enjoyed. I had it back to back with my homebrew and was pleased that they both tasted pretty similar. The Lost Coast had a better finish and felt more refined, though. Pretty good brew.
The Boards:
Click to embiggen for space battle awesomeness!
Star Wars X-Wing: I continued my streak of winning while playing a 125 point battle that included the Slave I and the Millenium Falcon. I was part of the Imperial Force and was in control of a Tie Bomber and a Tie Fighter. My team mate was in control of the Tie Interceptor, a Tie Fighter, and the Slave I. Overall we had a really great space battle that took a while to play. But in the end my team was victorious and I am not 4-0 while playing X-Wing. It’s a super awesome game!
Settlers of Catan: I had the privilege of not only teaching the game to a new player, but I also had the privilege of playing the game with three women. That’s not a very common occurrence, unfortunately. Two of them love Catan and were very competitive, which might have helped the new player. The new player ended up winning as she was able to steal the longest road at the end for victory.
At least it looks pretty awesome!
Quantum: My level 1 friend, Jeremy, had the privilege of making his first ever appearance at the Spieltage at Essen. Quantum is one of the games he picked up and we were able to play it on Saturday with our friend Ben. WHile I’d like to say it was utterly and completely awesome, I can’t. Jeremy beat us in about 14 minutes. “Beat” is actually a pretty weak way to say it. He completed crushed us. He was able to get all four of his quantum cubes out there before Ben or I got our second cube out. It was pretty embarrassing, really.
It’s all about the elements!
Compounded: After the pummeling in Quantum we decided to play Compounded. I really enjoy this game. It is such an elegant design and is so much fun to play. I love the theme and how well everything is integrated together. Darrell Louder (designer) and Dice Hate Me Games (Publisher) really have a great game and great production here. I just wish it came in a bigger box, because the amount of game in the design is definitely worthy of a big box.
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So those are the Boards and Barley that I enjoyed last week. What did you enjoy?
Monday Brews: 11-4-13
Well, Halloween is over and it’s now November. The leaves are just about all off the trees in my neighborhood. With the time change it’s dark when I get home from work. So you know what that means? It means that we might as well settle inside and play more board games! (and maybe enjoy some nice cold-weather brews!)
So here are the Boards and Barley that I enjoyed in the past week…
The Barley:
A new brewery in my hood!
Belhaven Scottish Ale: A delicious, smooth, enjoyable ale. If you’ve never had one, try it this week!
Tyranena Painted Ladies: At game night I grabbed one of these since the pumpkin ale season is ending and I figured I better enjoy one while I could. It’s nice that it’s not overly pumpkin flavored.
Newton’s Oatmeal Stout: I enjoyed more of my own homebrew. I think it’s pretty good. While it won’t win any awards, it’s definitely an enjoyable brew.
Wisconsin Brewing Amber Ale: I visited this brand new brewery on their Opening Day last Friday. This is a new brewery pretty close to where I live and my visit last Friday will certainly not be my last to the brewery. It’s not every day that a new craft brewery opens so close. I enjoyed the Amber Ale, but they also offered an American IPA, a Session IPA, and a Brown Porter.
Sierra Nevada Narwhal Imperial Stout: Potent. But not more potent than a typical Imperial beer. This was pretty good, but I’m glad I only had half a bottle.
Tyranena Sheep Shagger Scotch Ale: On Saturday I participated in a beer run at a brewery. I ran the 1/6th Barrel distance (4.37 miles) with a bunch of my friends. This is a fantastic event that sells out every year. With the entry you also get a great meal of lasagna, salad, and breadsticks. And you also get two beer tickets. I chose the Sheep Shagger because I love scotch ales and I can’t find this one in stores.
Tyranena Three Blondes Honey Ale: For my second beer ticket I chose the Three Blondes since I needed something lighter. However, I wish I had chosen the Imperial Coffee Porter since it was delicious (I got a sample).
Overall it was a pretty good beer week!
The Boards:
To Bunsen Burn or not to Bunsen Burn… that is the question.
Compounded (x2): This recent Kickstarter arrival is a fantastic game. I have played it twice (once 4p, once 2p). The game itself is a compound composed of elements of science, fun, and awesomeness!
Star Wars X-Wing Miniatures: I got to play X-Wing for the third time. The third time went about the same as the first two. In each of those I had incredible dice results. In this case I finished off the game by rolling 6 hits from my last 7 dice. Beware if we ever match up on the X-Wing field!
Carcassonne: While I was at the Tyranena Beer Run waiting for the race to begin we got a 6p game of Carcassonne on the table. I must have been distracted because I played a pretty terrible game. I tied for 4th place, but only three points ahead of last.
Dungeon Roll: I played a couple games of Dungeon Roll with my kids this weekend. They are 4yo and 2yo. They absolutely love rolling the dice and grabbing the treasure tokens. My son chooses the treasures based on the color, which normally means he grabs blue ones. It’s a fun game and a great way to get my kids interested in gaming! Side note: Tasty Minstrel just launched a 14-day Kickstarter campaign for a Holiday promo pack for the game. You can check it out here: Dungeon Roll Winter Promo Pack.
Designer’s Corner: (Scoville Update)
Coming (very) soon to Kickstarter!
I did not do any game design this week. I’ve simply been getting more and more excited about the Scoville Kickstarter project coming up in the next few weeks. While I don’t have a solid date for the KS campaign it is sounding like it will be up during BGG.con.
Speaking of BGG.con, I will be there demoing Scoville. If you haven’t played it, Tweet at me and stop by for a demo. I’m super excited to introduce it to more people. I’m also super excited that artwork is being done in advance of the KS campaign. In case you don’t subscribe to Tasty Minstrel‘s newsletter (you should!) then you probably missed the announcement that Joshua Cappel is on board to do the artwork. If you are not familiar with his artwork, take a look at Belfort since it is simply amazing!
As more information about Scoville becomes available I will keep you posted.
Boards and Barley 